


leaves are falling

by rangerhitomi



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Autumn, Awkward Flirting, Gen, M/M, raking leaves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-29 10:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3892741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuma offers to help Ryoga rake the leaves in the yard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	leaves are falling

It was a second chance at a new life, a second chance to be Ryoga Kamishiro. Even though he remembered everything now, even though his memories were blurred together sometimes, he was determined to be happy, determined to start over and rebuild past relationships and let someone in, let someone help him sort through his problems and his fears and his depression – because, no matter how much he tried to ignore it, to pretend he was fine, he wasn’t. He never would be. Watching people die for you, watching as everything you loved burned around you, wasn’t something that could be easily overcome.

But Yuma helped. He may not have understood the confusion of having three very different and oftentimes conflicting sets of memories in his head, but instead of pushing himself away, he tried to pull himself closer. Ryoga found comfort in the fact that Yuma cared so deeply about him, even after all he had done to Yuma, as Ryoga Kamishiro and as Nasch the Barian lord.

One crisp October afternoon, Yuma showed up at the house Ryoga and Rio grew up in, the house they had tidied up and tried to make livable again, and found Ryoga in the backyard raking leaves. It seemed like an endless task, and Ryoga regretted ever talking his father into planting more peach trees when he was five.

“Hey Shark!” Yuma bounded over to him, hands shoved into the pockets of his red peacoat. His mouth was almost hidden behind an enormous red scarf. Ryoga gave him a gentle smile and began pushing his small piles of leaves into one large pile.

“Hey. What’s up?”

Yuma eyed the growing pile of multicolored leaves. “I was gonna ask if you wanted to go walk down to the bookshop and get some cocoa but you look kind of busy.”

“I’m almost done.”

He turned for a moment to scoop one last pile together, and his gut instinct told him he probably shouldn’t have taken his eyes off of Yuma for more than two seconds.

The declaration of  _kattobingu da, ore!_ was his only warning, and he turned in stunned disbelief as Yuma held out his arms and jumped backward into the leaves.

The laughter in Yuma’s face faded as he caught sight of Ryoga’s scowl, and he seemed to realize he probably shouldn’t have jumped into the leaves by the way his smile turned downcast and he averted Ryoga’s irritated gaze.

Silence passed for a moment, and Ryoga contemplated calling Yuma an idiot and making him help clean the leaves up, but the look on Yuma’s face was so much like a lost puppy that Ryoga didn’t really have the heart to be his usual self.

He sighed and held out a hand. “Come on.”

Yuma slowly reached out. “You’re not mad?”

“Of course I’m mad. But being mad isn’t going to make the leaves rake themselves.” He pulled Yuma clumsily to his feet. Leaves stuck to the fabric of Yuma’s coat and in his hair and as Ryoga reached out to brush them off, Yuma caught Ryoga’s hands between his gloved ones and gazed at Ryoga intently.

“Let me clean up.”

His hands were cold, and Yuma’s gloves were warm, so Ryoga let Yuma hold them for a moment while he pretended to think it over. “Well, I guess that would be fair. But the bookshop closes in an hour, so we should go get the cocoa now and then we can come back.”

Yuma’s face split into a wide grin. “You’re on! Do you need a coat or something?”

Ryoga was wearing only his light jacket; he didn’t feel like going back inside to grab a coat. His eyes fell on Yuma’s scarf. It was long enough that it wrapped comfortably around his neck four times and still dangled almost to his waist.

It was something the old Ryoga would never have dared do, but he wanted a new life, and as he looked into Yuma’s wide, innocent eyes and at the strands of hair that accented his jawline (his heart pounded at the thought) he wanted to take his relationship with Yuma a little bit further.

Before the war, he would have denied (had denied, actually, and vehemently) that he felt anything for Yuma other than deep admiration, but there was nothing holding him back now from admitting to himself that Yuma’s unwillingness to accept his necessary attempt at severing their bond had cemented his feelings.

He pulled his hands free and took the ends of Yuma’s scarf, unraveling them from around his neck. Yuma lifted an eyebrow and gave Ryoga a quizzical look, but Ryoga smiled again and shook his head. He threw the scarf over his own shoulders.

“Did you just steal my scarf?” Yuma pouted. “That’s mean.”

“Oh? Did you want it back?” Ryoga held up the ends. “Here.” He tossed the ends around Yuma’s neck, wrapping them back around twice, until he and Yuma were standing almost nose-to-nose, the scarf tying them together.

Ryoga knew his face was pink but he reached down and slipped his arms around Yuma’s waist.

“Shark,” Yuma murmured, but a soft smile played around his lips too, a shy smile that Ryoga had rarely seen on him, accompanied by a soft flush in his cheeks.

“You’re going to help me rake up all the leaves again, right?”

 _I can’t believe I’m actually doing this_ , he thought frantically, but Yuma nodded. “Yeah, I promised, right?”

“Good.”

Without another word, Ryoga fell into the remaining leaves, pulling Yuma with him. He landed on his back, and Yuma landed clumsily on top of him with a small laugh.

“Shark, that’s cheating,” he whined playfully, propping himself on his elbows as he stared down at Ryoga. “There’s more leaves you’re gonna make me clean up. And weren’t we gonna get cocoa?”

“I finally get the nerve to do something a normal teenager would do to get the boy he liked to kiss him and you’re complaining about the cocoa.”

Yuma’s face turned even redder and his eyes widened. “To-”

It was always like this in the movies, wasn’t it? There was always a grossly cheesy scene where the man wrapped the girl of his dreams in his arms and fell back and they kissed, surrounded by flowers or leaves or snow or whatever, and Yuma-

-Yuma was so like himself, oblivious as always, and Ryoga wondered for a fleeting moment if he had been too forward for Yuma’s comfort.

But then his smile returned and he leaned close to give Ryoga an awkward peck on the lips with his own lips tightly pressed. It was so innocent, so cute, that Ryoga couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’re not supposed to kiss me like you kiss your sister, Yuma.”

Yuma punched his arm weakly. “Show me how to do it, then.”

Truthfully, Ryoga had no idea what it was like either, but Nasch… Nasch had a little bit of an idea. He had been king, after all, and the king was entitled to certain… privileges.

He leaned forward and caught the corner of Yuma’s mouth with his lips. “Just do what I do.”

It was bliss, lying in that pile of crunchy yellow and red leaves, feeling Yuma’s lips twist awkwardly as he tried to match Ryoga’s kisses, feeling Yuma’s hands shift to different parts of Ryoga’s chest as though unsure where he was supposed to put them. They ignored the work they had to do and forgot about the cocoa, but as they laid tangled together there in the yard, in the crisp October air, surrounded by leaves, neither seemed to care.


End file.
